New WA law intends to take politics out of public health. We’re not so sure | Editorial

A new law that restructures Washington state’s public health system is supposed to keep politics from getting in the way of sound medical advice.

At least that’s the gist of what Gov. Jay Inslee said as he recently signed E2SHB 1152 into law.

While the intent sounds great, whether or not this “fix” will be an improvement remains to be seen. There are details to be worked out, and if they are not managed properly we see potential for even more political interference in the future.

For example, the new law requires that local health boards include an equal number of non-elected and elected officials.

It’s not a terrible idea. Currently, the Benton Franklin Health District Board is made up of the six Benton and Franklin County commissioners and none are experts in health care.

Under the new state law, the additional board members must come equally from these three categories:

▪ Medical professionals such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists and hospital administrators.

▪ Consumers living in the community who have experience with public health programs, particularly if they have faced significant health inequities.

▪ Other stakeholders, including those representing business, the armed services and nonprofit organizations — especially those that work with people who rely on public health services.

It will be up to the county commissioners to approve the new members, but the Washington State Board of Health will determine the process they use.

And that process is yet to be determined. State board members are supposed to figure out those rules in the coming months.

Our concern is that the categories are so broad it would be easy to add non-elected officials who have a particular political bent — defeating the intent of the law.

This very issue came up last March when Franklin County Commissioner Clint Didier proposed creating a committee to help guide school officials on their reopening plans, which also would have reduced the authority of Benton and Franklin Health District’s health officer.

He later withdrew his motion because of the changes coming down from the state. But at the time, Didier had already talked with Dr. Raul Garcia about being on the committee.

It’s no secret that last year during the COVID lockdown Didier pushed to dismiss the governor’s orders and re-open Franklin County.

Garcia is an emergency room physician affiliated with Lourdes Medical Center in Pasco who ran for governor last year. Considered a moderate Republican, he had endorsements from former Attorney General Rob McKenna and former Congressman Doc Hastings.

Nothing against Garcia, but the thought of county commissioners hand-picking which non-elected members join them on the local health district board runs counter to keeping politics out of the system.

While it is important to keep local control over who sits on the bi-county health district board, there must be some checks and balances to the process. Moving forward, the state board must provide a way to ensure that happens.

On another note, at least one positive development has come out of the pandemic — state officials finally realize it’s time to beef up long-neglected public health funding. But in a surprise move, there happens to be an additional $2.2 million set aside so the state can set up and operate regional health district centers.

This caught several legislators off guard.

The idea of creating another level of bureaucracy didn’t go over well. Many lawmakers and local health officials pushed back against the idea of a regional system, saying solid coordination already exists among county health districts.

Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, who worked tirelessly to find compromise on the bill, said Republicans were not allowed in the room when the operating budget was being discussed. He isn’t happy a policy the Legislature rejected and took out of a bill ended up getting funded anyway.

“I don’t like that,” Schmick said, referring to the process.

We don’t either.

Regional health districts could be helpful, but they also could weaken local control and that’s a concern. Both changes to public health need to be carefully watched.

Will they take politics out of public health? We will see.

This story was originally published May 28, 2021 at 12:25 PM.